Howard Vincent Malmstadt,
81, of Bridgman, Michigan passed away peacefully in his sleep in Kailua-Kona,
Hawaii on July 7, 2003. Dr. Malmstadt was Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. During his nearly 30 years at the
University of Illinois, Malmstadt was a leader in the development of modern
analytical chemistry and a major inspiration to a large number of students,
postdocs, and colleagues. Malmstadt probably produced more Ph. D.Ős that
pursued academic careers than any other analytical chemistry professor.
Although retirements and deaths have depleted the ranks somewhat, at one time
more than 25 of his Ph. D. students and postdocs were in academia. In addition
Professors like Jim Winefordner, University of Florida, Harry Pardue, Purdue
University, John Walters, St. Olaf College, Willard Harrison, University of
Florida, Stan Crouch, Michigan State University, Gary Hieftje, Indiana
University, Gary Horlick, University of Alberta, Ray Barnes, University of
Massachusetts, Themis Hadjiioannou, University of Athens, Bonner Denton,
University of Arizona and others have themselves produced academic offspring.
Several of the second-generation students have produced students who have gone
on to academic careers. There are now several 4th and 5th
generation Malmstadt academic progeny. MalmstadtŐs inspirational leadership,
his high moral standards, and his ability to bring out the best in people have
had a major role in the success of those associated directly or indirectly with
him.

Howard was born in 1922 in Marionette, Wisconsin. He earned
his bachelorŐs degree at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1943, and did
undergraduate research with Prof. Al. Wilds there. He was commissioned an
Ensign in the US Navy in 1943. From 1944 to 1945 he served as a navy lieutenant
in WWII aboard the USS Wilkes DD441, destroyer division in the Pacific, as a
radar officer. He was chosen for an elite program to study electronics and the
new technology called ŇradarÓ at Princeton University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He also attended naval electronics and radar schools
at Bell Labs, San Diego Fleet School, and Pearl Harbor. Upon returning to the
States was supervisor for the Department of Electronics Fundamentals at the
Naval Radar School on Treasure Island, California.

He returned to the University of Wisconsin to earn his M.S.
(1948). He earned his Ph. D. degree (1950) under the direction of Professor
Walter J. Blaedel, doing research in high frequency titrations. He was a post
doctoral research associate with Professor Blaedel during part of 1950 and
1951, working on developing a quick connect system for building electronic
circuits as well as on applications for high frequency titrations. He accepted
a position at the University of Illinois in 1951 as an instructor. A letter
from the Illinois archives dated February 22, 1951 states that he is to take
over the teaching duties of the retiring G. F. Smith. He was promoted to
assistant professor in 1954, to associate professor in 1957, and to full
professor in 1962.

Howard pioneered many areas of science and technology
including reaction rate methods of analysis, clinical chemical methods,
automation methods and devices, Fourier transform techniques, and optical and laser
absorption and emission spectroscopy. He was a consultant with Heath Company in
St. Joseph, Michigan to develop diverse chemical instrumentation with Heathkit.
He is generally considered to be the father of modern electronic analytical
instrumentation. He introduced thousands of scientists to electronic methods
of scientific data collection through his first of several books
"Electronics for Scientists" (co-written with C. G. Enke and E. C.
Toren). With Enke, he developed and taught both one-semester and three-week
summer courses on electronic instrumentation, the latter financed by industry
and the NSF, and materials developed for this course came to be used in more
than 500 schools all over the world. He wrote more than 150 scientific articles
and ten internationally used textbooks. Malmstadt was a Guggenheim Fellow in
1960, and received the ACS Award in Chemical Instrumentation in 1963, the
Donald P. Eckman Education Award of the Instrument Society of America in 1970,
the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry in 1976, the ISCO Award for Significant
Contributions to Instrumentation for Chemical Separations in 1980, the ACS J.
Calvin Giddings Award in Education in 1984, the Anachem Award of the Federation
of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies in 1987, and the Hasler
Award of the Spectroscopy Society of America in 1995.

For the past 23 years he has worked with Youth With A
Mission organization and as International Chancellor of the University of the
Nations, a mission-oriented, international, nondenominational University that
he co-founded with Loren Cunningham when he left the University of Illinois in
1978. based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. At 81 years old he spent his last days
sharing his most recent vision and passion, a pure water missions project for
third world nations. He is survived by his wife Carolyn Gay, of Bridgman; two
daughters, Cynthia (Thomas) Bloomer of Burtiny, Switzerland and Alice (Philip)
Magner of Modesto, California; a son, Jonathan Malmstadt of Bridgman, Michigan;
and three grandsons, Jonathan and Paul Magner and Philip Bloomer.